Step 1: Plan Early for the Festive Season

With customers becoming more selective in their spending and the holiday period being shorter, it’s crucial to start planning your marketing campaign now. Begin by creating a broad overview of your campaign, even if it’s still vague. Here are some key points to consider:

1. Set Specific Goals: What do you want to achieve? Is it more sales, a larger email list, or increased social media engagement? Define your targets, such as “boost sales by 20%” or “increase followers by 1,000,” so you can track your progress. Moreover, keep in mind the holiday key dates so you can tweak your goals for each occasion.
2. Manage Your Budget: Carefully allocate your Facebook / Instagram budget across the entire season, not just on big days like Black Friday and Boxing Day. Ensure you have enough to sustain campaigns throughout the holiday period and keep your brand in front of customers.

Step 2: Experiment with Different Approaches

Testing is a critical part of any campaign, and as we soon approach the big holiday season, it’s time to experiment with a soft launch. Meta advises testing different types of content and messaging to see what resonates with your audience.

1. A/B Testing: Meta reports that marketers see a 30% lower cost per result when they use the winning version from an A/B test. Before you run two versions of your content to see which performs better, develop a hypothesis. For example, determine which business goal you want to achieve with the content. Then, create distinct variations (i.e., age, demographic, or interest) to help you identify the traits of each customer segment. Keep the test running for at least two weeks for accurate results.
2. Create Festive Content: Festive visuals on social media, in email campaigns, or on your website can grab attention and engage customers. While user-generated content is a go-to strategy, if time is tight, cut to the chase with Instagram Reels ads directly targeting your audience. However, avoid simply posting your offer– your content should provide value. This can be done by sharing a story, answering FAQs, giving tutorials, or showing a behind-the-scenes look.

Step 3: Push Winning Strategies

As we are in the holiday peak season, it’s time to focus on the strategies that have proven successful in your testing phase. Here’s how to maximise your returns:

1. Double Down on What Works: If you’ve found a message or offer that performs well, stick with it. However, just because you’ve identified effective content doesn’t mean you should leave it as it is. Keep an eye out for minor performance improvements for stronger short-term results, while also considering trends over time to guide future actions.
2. Engage at Every Stage of the Buying Process: Meta mentions that “Ads that have click-to-message feature create opportunities for your business to provide support to customers.” This feature allows you to offer personalised selling opportunities, just as you would in a physical store.
3. Why Engagement Matters: Engagement metrics such as likes, comments, and shares indicate how much people are interacting with your content. The more engagement you get, the more effective your campaign will be in building brand awareness and driving sales. Keeping your campaign structure simple is key because consistency is how your customers remember you.